Vex Thal and Srra Temple + AA's

[EQBallzz]

Originally Posted by Daldaen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The events had varying respawn times. The Phase 1 trials were 12 hours and the Phase2/3 were something really weird like 5 days I think (maybe it was 7, but I think they were a little less) and the Phase 4/5 gods were 7 days.

So... the zone did limit you to 72 players in zone and would prevent a 73rd from zoning in. You could also bind in PoTime B at this point in time. Due to classic PoP raid window (which only allowed for 10 group leaders, I.e. Raids of 60 max) you could still have 12 people out of your raid in the zone with you. So different guilds could zone in but once you had 72 zoned in, anyone else was prevented from zoning in.

Al'Kabor, which had the alpha of alpha versions of PoTime would have Phase 2 trigger once you zoned into the 5th Phase 1 trial (rather than when you defeated it). Which would cause mobs to aggro through the time dial while you're still fighting Phase 1 which was fun. Also there was no walling of AEs, the gods only dropped 2 loots per, and Quarm had absolutely ridiculous AEs. Look up Quarm's 8 AEs on Lucy and then look at the history tab to see the changes made around July of 2003. The week following this update TR/Afterlife finally downed Quarm, for good reason. Some of the AEs were just ridiculous. My personal favorite was the 300' Range PBAE 18 second stun, unresistable with a 35 second recast time. Lol...

Yeah, that is sort of refreshing my memory. I guess it was that 72 man lockout thing that people worked out the rotation for. I think the gods were on a 7 day timer like you mentioned which is what the rotation was based on. Your guild basically had 2 days to clear everything before the next guild got their turn. It wasn't ideal for those that came later to PoTime (like us) because only getting 2 days initially to learn the encounters when others got the full week was a bit rough but we managed.

I do remember the phases getting jacked on us one time. There was some sort of spider that got stuck under the world and we couldn't hit it so we couldn't complete that phase and couldn't continue.

[Erati]

for some reason Ssra Temple only makes me think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxop...ature=youtu.be

weird...

[Uuruk]

Originally Posted by Erati [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

for some reason Ssra Temple only makes me think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxop...ature=youtu.be

weird...

Erati, the titanic finally sank.

[fadetree]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If raining overpowered gear is your stopping point, then lets stop before kunark. Or before planes. Or before dragon itemisation.

7/18 (with an ac proc that bypasses the by level worn AC caps) off a level 14. Puts to shame almost anything non dragon/plane pre kunark.

Naw. Your definition is different than mine. I suspect it's a subjective thing!

[Erati]

Originally Posted by Uuruk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Erati, the titanic finally sank.

hahaha - did you note the time?! id like to que it up

[pasi]

Originally Posted by EQBallzz [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah, that is sort of refreshing my memory. I guess it was that 72 man lockout thing that people worked out the rotation for. I think the gods were on a 7 day timer like you mentioned which is what the rotation was based on. Your guild basically had 2 days to clear everything before the next guild got their turn. It wasn't ideal for those that came later to PoTime (like us) because only getting 2 days initially to learn the encounters when others got the full week was a bit rough but we managed.

I do remember the phases getting jacked on us one time. There was some sort of spider that got stuck under the world and we couldn't hit it so we couldn't complete that phase and couldn't continue.

Yeah. as mentioned, it was quasi instanced. It would populate NPCs based on the furthest progression of raiders within the raid. This was tricky with varying respawns for phases when you had people jump ship to other guilds. I remember a time when after a normal phase 3, we would jump into phase 5 with a dead CT (where the guild of the players we recruited left off). This never seemed to be an issue with fully cleared PoTimes, but was definitely the case with partially cleared.

The zone also had time constraints (generally 1 additional hour per boss) where other guilds could not even zone in.

[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by fadetree [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Naw. Your definition is different than mine. I suspect it's a subjective thing!

I'm not saying your wrong in your opinion, but I find it hard to understand it. Let me explain my perspective.

7/18 is objectively better than pre-dragon itemisation classic endgame. It might be the most extreme example I can think of, but it is not a total outlier. In Kunark level 19 trash giants drop a 10/35 hammer. Self-acquired drops like these vastly improve the power of characters under 20. It allows them to do content they couldn't previously and the effect only gets stronger as they level up e.g. weapons giving over 100hp and better than 1:2 ratios (over powered).

This is just the start though. Consider how plentiful drops such as Greenjade Broadsword are (11/25). This availability makes them cheap and easily affordable before level 5. Especially if that player is willing to XP on spiders, skeletons, bears etc ie what they would be killing anyway. ECmart helps rain this gear onto lower levels giving them 1handers which are probably better than the 2handers they would have without Kunark (gear raining).


Level a melee character in pre-dragon itemisation equipment and one with cheap Kunark junk. The difference is vast.

Perhaps your point of contention is it did not become a 'shitfest' until POP was played out? With our years of Kunark on p99 it has played out differently here. Thinking about it, top Kunark gear trivialises kunark in a way that I don't think top PoP gear trivialised PoP (and PoT gear was very powerful)!

Perhaps it wasn't PoP which was the only cause of the problem, but also the age of most the servers?

[fadetree]

Yeah, I get ya, I think, it's just I don't agree with you on what constitutes too much. Also, I don't think the concept of 'never allow anything to trivialize content' works for a game that has any kind of progressive expansions.

What really got me though was when defiant started dropping...I was like...wtf they aren't even trying anymore. I was ok with stuff through PoP, although I knew it had gotten inflated, but what came after was bad and then the defiant thing just was the last straw.

[Jimjam]

Fair enough.

I think we disagree on defiant too; I viewed it as an updated version of cloth/raw-hide/chain/bronze. People complained it made PoTime gear redundant, but I think the truth is it actually wasn't as good as ~10 year old raid gear at level 65.

Although I feel gearflation really started as soon as classic EQ was released, PoTime was powerful! I agree on that! It seemed ridiculous to me that you could bypass a decade of group content gear because you raided PoTime.

[maskedmelonpai]

The only way to combat gear inflation is with lateral progression. The simplest way to do this is to implement new statistics related to a specific content release that is needed for that release and possibly future releases, but has no effect really on past releases. Essentially your character does t really become much more powerful relative to old content, but you are actually able to do the new content. Ideally, underused old world locations would be updated with content releases to include new drops with stats for new content. Keep you pushing that button since none of it actually matters anyway :3